Improvement in operating hammers and stamps



LAY.

N.PETERS, PHDTO-LITHOGRAPHER. WASHINGTON, D Cv V. UNITED STATES PATENT Orifice.

CHRISTOPHER R. JAMES, OF JERSEY CITY, NEW JERSEY, ASSIGNOR TO HIMSELF AND N. W. CONDICT, JR., OF SAME PLACE.

IMPROVEMENT IN OPERATING HAMMERS AND STAMPS.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 55,772, (lated June 19, 1866.

To all 'whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, CHRISTOPHER R. J AMES, of Jersey City, in the county of Hudson and State of' New Jersey, have invented a new and Im proved Mode of Operatin g Stamps and Hammers; and Ido hereby declare that the following is a full, clear, and exact description ot' the same, reference being h ad to the accompanying drawings, forming pa-rt of' this specification, in Which- Figures 1 and 2 are Vertical sections, at right angles to each other, of a stamping-mill for pulverizing ores having my invention applied to operate the stamps.

Similar letters of reference indicate corre sponding parts in both tigures.

The atmospheric hammers and stamps now most commonly' used have the hammer or stam p raised by means of rotating cams or wipers and the blow produced by mea-ns ot' air compressed in the upper part of a cylinder by the raising ofthe piston attached to the lifting-rod of the hammer or stamp and working within the said cylinder, a partial vacuum being at the same time produced in the cylinder below the piston; and in this operation the force of the blow is limited by the degree of compression ot' the air above or the degree ot' vacuum below the piston. While the use ot' steam to operate the hammer' or stamp in the mode commonly prac` ticed in the steam-hammer is free from this objection as to the limit of the force ofthe blow, it is liable, more especially in its application to stamping-mills, to the objection that, whatever pressure is used above the piston to give force to the blow, the same pressure is used below for merely lifting the hammer or stamp and the piston.

The object of my invention is to dispense with the rotating shaft and cams used in the atmospheric stamp and hammer, and thus to make a more simple machine, and at the same time to obviate the above-mentioned defect ot' the use of steam, asin the steam-hammer; and to this end it consists, principally, in the attachmentot' the stamp or hammer to a piston working in a cylinder the lower end of which is in constant communication with a reservoir of compressed air of a sufficient pressure to raise the piston, and the upper end of which communicates, through a suitably-operated valve,

with a steam-boiler in which there .is a pressure of steam sufficiently in excess of the pressure of air in the reservoir to act on the upper side of the hammer with a force suflicient to produce as heavy a blow as may be desired.

My invention is represented in the drawings as em bodiedin astamping-mill with two stamps for pulverizing ores.

A is a frame'which supports the other parts of the machine. The stam ps are situated within this frame, and in the bottom ot the said frame are troughs or mort-ars B, into which the ore to be operated upon is introduced through the openings Q. The stamps C C are secured to the lower ends of the vertical piston-rods D D', which pass through stuffingboxes n in the bottom ot' the cylinders F F', which are arranged at the top ot' the frame A, and the said rods are provided at their upper ends with pistons E E, which are fitted to work tightly inthe said cylinders. The lower ends of the cylinders are in constant communication, through pipes hh', with the com pressedair reservoir, in which air is compressed by a pump, H I, to a suitable pressure for raising the pistons and stampssay ten pounds per square iuch-tl1e said pump being only set in operation to lill the reservoir or make up for any loss ot' pressure by leakage or accident. On the top ot' the cylinders is a valve-chest, T, communicating by a pi'pe, m, with a steamboiler in which there is a pressure ot' steam of, say from tty to seven ty-tive pounds per inch, or sufficient, by its pressure on the upper sides ofthe pistons in excess of the pressure ot' air below, to produce as forcible blows ofthe stamps as may be desired.

In the Valve-chest T there is a slide-valve, S, arranged to work over two pistons, a a', each of which communicates with the upper end of one of the cylinders, and an intermediate port, o, communicating with the atmosphere, the said ports being so arranged and the valve so constructed that the latter will open the port c or a ot' one cylinder to the steam in the valvechest and boiler, while the port a or a ot' the other cylinder isin communication, through the port fv, with the atmosphere.

The valveS may be operated in various ways to admit steam to the upper end of one cylinder, and thereby produce the descent of its piston and stamp, and at the same time permit the exhaust of the steam from the upper end of the other cylinder, and permit its piston and stamp to be raised by the pressure ot' the air below the piston. The said valve is represented.

,E completes its stroke upward and downward,

and thereby produce a longitudinal movement ot' the said stem and the valve.

When the piston E is at the upper end of its stroke the tappet-arm is in contact with the upper tappet, f', the rod R is depressed, and the port a is opened to the steam and the port a open to the atmosphere, and the steam is free to enter the cylinder F,to produce byits action on the piston E the blow of the stamp C,while the piston E is subject only to the action of the compressed air, by which it and its respective stamp C are raised. As the piston E completes its downward stroke the tappet-arm K, operating` on the tappet f, reverses the position of the valve and admits steam to the upper end of the cylinder F, and opens the upper end of the cylinder F to the atmosphere, thus allowing the steam to act upon the piston E and produce the blow of the stamp C, and allowing the pis-- ton E and stamp C to be raised by the compressed air. In this way it will be seen that the stamps will be made to operate alternately with a very rapid and forcible action.

The invention may be applied to a hammer in the same way as described with reference to the stamping-mill.

What I claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is

l. Operating,` a stamp or hammer by means of a piston working,` in a cylinder, the upper end of which is opened at proper intervals to a steam-boiler and to the atmosphere alternately, and the lower end ot' which is in constant communication with a reservoir ot' compressed air, substantially as herein specified.

2. In combina-tion with two stamps or hammers so operated by pistons working in separate cylinders, a valve and passages so operated as to brin g each cylinder alternately into communication with the boiler, and so produce the alternate action ot the pistons and their attached hammers, substantially as herein speci tied.

C. R. JAMES.

Witnesses:

HENRY T. BROWN, J. W. GooMBs. 

